Hi Folks, I broke from my usual tradition of driving to the Watercress line, so as it was a special gala for Southern Railway fans me and Nick trained it from Cam and Dursley to Winchester, then taxied it to Alresford. A good thing because as planning the moves saw us hop aboard the Real Ale Train quite a bit! the Galas seen SR Pacific's P and O/Braunton as Lord Dowding/92 SQN and Sir Keith Park, also The Mangapps 4MT looked brilliant after its recent return to steam. The Watercress home fleet 76017 4MT and 2MT and the odd Southern Diesel also crept in... Other SR Pacific's under and awaiting restoration were Sir Archibald Sinclair/Wieghbridge/Swanage and the Cab of Canadian Pacific which Nick took for a spin (not see photo), so that's just about 8 Southern Region Bullied Pacific's in one place if you count the cab! a true Waterloo Sunset, on our way home a fatality between Reading and Slough on the line brought reading station to a standstill for a while which saw us visit the old GWR station entrance that's now a Fullers Pub and why not, all resumed after the timetable chaos and we returned home.
Copyright of all pictures in this gallery belong to R Kelsey.